Principals and Social Entrepreneurship

Excel LDP Module 3

Principals and Social Entrepreneurship

25-27 February 2015

Mr. Oliver Ryan "Birdie" Salva, Co-Founder and Principal of Curiosity Design Research,
conducts a seminar-workshop on "Innovative and Creative Thinking"

SAN FERNANDO, La Union — Last February 25, 2015, the Excel Center for Educational Leadership headed back to the city of San Fernando to conduct the third module of their Leadership Development Program for public school leaders. This three-day program was held at the Community Learning Center, San Fernando Division. 

Social Entrepreneurship was the over-all theme for this module. It aimed to explain and analyze how school heads in public schools can be more efficient and effective using a number of creative strategies. A basic run down of what social entrepreneurship is opened the three-day session, relaying to our 31 Fellows the concept that there are innovative ways to solve a social problem. It was important to note that the purpose of social entrepreneurship is to actually solve problems in society, as opposed to the purpose of a business entrepreneurship which is to earn profit. Once a social problem is recognized, social entrepreneurship must contain four key elements to reach a solution—innovation, sustainability, scalability, and measurability. 

A session on “Innovative and Creative Thinking” proved to be essential, as our participants received a crash course on Design Thinking from Mr. Oliver Ryan “Birdie” Salva, Co-Founder and Principal of Curiosity Design Research. Salva covered the main elements that creative design researchers work with: Empathy, definition, ideate, and prototype. The Fellows were tasked to “redesign the gif-giving experience” as part of their creativity-testing activity following the lecture. 

To better demonstrate what social entrepreneurship is, Mr. Edsel Ramirez, President of the Philippine Toy Library (PTL), a non-governmental organization that transforms idles spaces in barangays into play areas for children to enjoy. This lessens the number of kids roaming around in the street, and gives them better use of their time. Ramirez shared his experience in putting together PTL and reaching that goal to solve a social problem in various communities across the Philippines. 

Excel Executive Director Kai Pastores-Keh presents a Certificate of Appreciation to Mr. Edsel Ramirez,
President of the Philippine Toy Library, for his invaluable talk about Social Entrepreneurship. 

Executive Director of Excel, Ms. Kai Pastores-Keh, worked with the Fellows in giving a clearer comprehension on the different areas of social entrepreneurship. Pastores-Keh touched on the importance of brainstorming in order to better identify a problem, while also explaining what the Theory of Change is and what a Logic Model represents. And because social entrepreneurship also deals with budgeting and finances, the last day of the program was devoted to learning about proper budgeting and giving significance to having a sense of accountability. 

As a take-home task, Fellows were asked to come up with project proposals that will identify a specific problem in each of their schools. Proposals should show different ways on how the Fellows, as school heads, can address and alleviate these problems. Further discussion about this assignment will take place in the fourth module happening on May 13 to 15, 2015.